MANNY CARRASCOPresident & CO-FOUNDERBoard Member

Manny Carrasco (aka MANu) has been drawing and painting professionally for over 20 years, specializing in traditional illustration, storyboarding, painting, 2D animation, digital painting and 3D animation. He has worked in the advertising, toy, videogame and film industries, with film and animation credits for Space Jam, Anastasia, Prince of Egypt, The Flintstones, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Manny's clients include Reel FX, DreamWorks, Fox Feature, Richard Rich Studios, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, Sony, Acclaim Entertainment, NCSOFT, Edge of Reality, Ubisoft and Zynga. As a Master Falconer, Manny has focused a substantial amount of his work on his love of falconry and birds of prey.

Kristy TiptonVice-PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDERBoard Member

Kristy graduated with a degree in Fine Art and Visual Communication from the University of Texas in Austin. She has spent 20 years leading creative teams on video game and film projects for the entertainment industry. Most recently, she has been working for high-tech clients including DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), overseeing teams working on advanced and emerging technology projects. In addition, she consults with the Cubic Global Innovation team to promote creative problem-solving, team building and rapid-prototyping of new products through technology incubator events across the world. She is responsible for all Cubic Innovation media projects, including a multi-year partnership with the celebrated Tiburon Media group. Her award-winning photographs are being used for education and awareness on the benefits of dehorning initiatives to deter poaching activities.

DAVID LEVYCO-FOUNDERBoard Member

David Levy is a leading international concept artist, studied industrial design and architecture in France and the Netherlands, respectively, and is currently working in Los Angeles, California as production designer in the movie and videogame respectively, and is currently working in Los Angeles, California as production designer in the movie and videogame industries. He has contributed to numerous video game titles such as Prince of Persia 3 and Assassin's Creed, both at Ubisoft in Montreal. David has also worked on several major motion pictures, including Tron Legacy, The Thing, Prometheus, and Ender's Game. His interests and unique skills in video gaming, film and industrial design make him a sought-after expert by clients, such as, Disney, Scott Free, 20th Century Fox, Oddlot Entertainment, Electronic Arts, NCSoft, Ubisoft, Reel FX, Edge of Reality, Spacetime, Bluepoint Games and Universal.

THIERRY DOIZONBOARD MEMBER

Thierry Doizon (aka barontieri) studied in Mali, France and the UK, and has been working in video games and film, as well as, teaching for the past 21 years. His clients include Cryo Interactive, Acclaim Entertainment, Splash Damage, Ubisoft, Disney Interactive and Square-Enix/Eidos, where he was the driving force behind Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, Tron Legacy, Deus Ex: HR,Warp, Lara Croft GO and countless others.

Terryl WhitlatchBoard Member

Terryl Whitlatch studied illustration at the California College of Arts and the Academy of Art University and has been working professionally for over 25 years. She has worked with many major studios and effects houses as a highly sought after creature and concept designer. Her clients include, Industrial Light and Magic, Lucasfilm Ltd., Pixar, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney lmagineering, Electronic Arts, PDI, Entertainment Arts, LucasArts, Paramount Studios, Universal Studios, Chronicle Books, Design Studio Press, Titan Books, and various zoos and natural history museums. Terryl was the principal creature designer for Star Wars — the Phantom Menace. She designed most of the alien characters and creatures, from concept to fully realized anatomies and stylizations. Some of the significant characters include Jar-Jar Bin, Sebulba, the pod racers, the undersea monsters of Naboo, and the Naboo Swamp creatures. She also worked closely with George Lucas in the redesign of such pre-existing characters as Jabba the Hutt and the dewbacks.

AARON BLAISEBOARD MEMBER

Aaron Blaise studied at the Ringling College of Art, and started his professional career at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he spent 21 years helping to create some of the greatest animated films ever made. He has been an animator or supervising animator on The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, and was co-director on Brother Bear, which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film. Aaron recently served as 2D Animation Supervisor and Character Designer for the "The Bear and the Hare", an advertisement loved by millions around the world. He also set a Kickstarter record for funding the first animated feature film via the crowd-funding platform. Art Story is currently in development. Aaron also teaches animation and painting through his website and very popular YouTube channel.

LAUREN BADELLCORRESPONDENT MANAGER

Lauren comes to Expedition Art following the least linear trajectory of just about anyone she knows. Musical theater nerd, salsa dancer, mountaineer, master organizer, creative writing enthusiast...you name it, she is probably less degrees of separation than Hollywood from Kevin Bacon. Joining the team this summer, she looks forward to contributing stories to the blog and wrangling others to contribute as well.

Kacey BartonDIGITAL CORRESPONDENT

Kacey Barton is currently getting her Bachelors Degree in Digital Art, specializing in Illustration. She was born with an artist’s hands and wanderer’s feet, taking any opportunity to travel and create. Her focus is to educate and inspire change through art, writing and photography. She currently resides in the Big Bend area of Texas with her rescue cat, Charlie Chaplin.

Josh JohnsonDigital Correspondent

Josh has amazing energy and enthusiasm for conserving mother nature. Josh has a spirit that is one with nature and all living things. Some of Josh’s favorite activities involve snowboarding, skateboarding, soccer, photography, and weight lifting; all of which fulfills a particular need of his soul. Josh loves to love, and to inspire others!!

ARIA STIEFELMAIERDIGITAL CORRESPONDENT

Aria Stiefelmaier is a rising sophomore at Round Rock High School. She is a Digital Correspondent for Expedition Art for the summer of 2017. She mainly works with writing blog posts and helping with the online store. Some fun facts about her are: she loves hiking and many other outdoor activities, loves animals, and plays in the ECNL league for soccer.

Savannah TroyDigital Correspondent

Savannah is currently a student at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in Biology and French and is a member of the Polymathic Scholars Honors program within the College of Natural Sciences. She has been involved with ornithology research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory for two years, enjoys playing the piano and has loved to draw and paint ever since the movie “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” came out in 2002 (the disc has an extra credit feature that teaches you to draw horses, check it out!).

C. WuDigital Correspondent

C is a high school graduate who loves science and visual storytelling. C will be a first year at the University of Chicago majoring in ecology/evolutionary biology and computer science. Interests: wildlife, paleontology, environmental conservation, illustration, and animation.

AUSTIN STIEFELMAIERWEBSITE DEVELOPER

Austin Stiefelmaier is interning for the summer of 2017 at Expedition Art as a website developer. He will be working primarily with the website to develop the online shopping platform. He is a rising sophomore at Princeton University in the Operations Research and Financial Engineering department and plans on obtaining a certificate in Computer Science. Besides wildlife, he is passionate about soccer, LEGO’s, and pretty much any board game!

JOHN TIPTONVOLUNTEER AT-LARGE

John is Expedition Art's jack-of-all trades. He started his career creating sound fx and music for video games, and currently plies his trade as a video strategist at Dell. John still has aspirations of a musical career, being a photo journalist, coffee connoisseur and glamper.

GuinnessAmbassador

Guinness is a four-year old Wire Fox Terrier who loves long walks, people, people food, water and mountain adventures.